The present invention relates to drums and in particular to an all plastic industrial drum.
Liquids and semi liquids are commonly transported and stored in drum-like containers. In recent years, the trend has been to form such containers of an outer shell of laminated layers of fibrous material and to provide the shell with an inner plastic liner. More recently, all plastic drums have been introduced. In the main, such all plastic drums, however, have generally been constructed as more or less replicas of conventional non-plastic drums. The conventional cylindrical drum configuration has many advantages and disadvantages. The principal advantage is that the drum may be rolled on its chimes to facilitate movement. This is a very important consideration when it is realized that such drums often have capacities as large as 55 gallons and thus are extremely heavy. The principal disadvantages of such drums are that they cannot be stacked on their sides directly above one another for storage or for discharge of the contents utilizing a spigot. Instead, side stacking requires that the drums be placed in a pyramid shaped configuration. For individual discharge, a frame is required to support the drum on its side.
Another problem of the conventional drum is that its cylindrical body does not lend to orientation of the container when placed in a shipping vehicle such as a trailer truck, van body railroad car, etc. Thus, as often as not, a label positioned on the drum may be blocked or hidden from view when the drum is set in an upright position.
Another problem of existing plastic drums or steel drums is that when they are moved from location to location, a fork lift truck is usually needed. With the conventional cylindrical drum, a clamp or pallet is required to enable the fork lift to get under the drum without damaging the drum.
In view of the above, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide an improved all plastic drum which overcomes each of the aforementioned shortcomings of the conventional, cylindrical drum while maintaining most of the advantages.